Weekly Summary, Exercises 337-343
Week #49 Writing Like a Film Studio, Post-Production
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This week we completed our final deep dive into writing prose like a film studio. This time we focused on post-production and the process of editing. As I mentioned in previous weeks, we are not proposing these exercises as a method for editing your manuscript. We were just trying out different areas to focus on while editing a story.
Monday, September 16, 2024
🟡 Return of the Skeleton Draft
Exercise #337 Laying the Foundation for Cinematic Storytelling
Strategy: Imagine your scene as a blank canvas, waiting to be filled with the vibrant colors of your imagination. But where do you start? Just like a director setting up a shot, you need to establish the key elements before diving into the details. This exercise will guide you through the process of drafting a scene, focusing on the essential components that bring your story to life. By breaking down the scene into manageable chunks, you'll create a solid foundation that can be refined and polished in later revisions. Remember, this is your first take—don't worry about perfection. Instead, let your creativity flow and capture the raw energy of your story. Action!
Tuesday, September 17, 2024
🟡 From Big Picture to Fine Details
Exercise #338 Refining Your Narrative Like a Film Editor
Strategy: Picture yourself in a dark editing room, surrounded by screens displaying your scene from various angles. Just as a film editor crafts the final cut of a movie, you have the power to shape and refine your written scene for maximum impact. This exercise will guide you through a multi-layered editing process, starting with big-picture decisions and gradually honing in on the finer details. By questioning each element of your scene—from its overall necessity to individual word choices—you'll learn to trim the fat, enhance the core narrative, and polish your prose to a cinematic shine. Remember, great writing often comes from great editing. So grab your virtual scissors, and let's start cutting!
Wednesday, September 18, 2024
🟡 The Second Unit Shoot
Exercise #339 Enriching Your Narrative with Supplementary Material
Strategy: Imagine you're a second-unit director on a film set, tasked with capturing those extra shots that will elevate the main scene from good to great. In writing, this process is about identifying opportunities to add depth, context, or new perspectives to your existing narrative. Just as b-roll footage can set the mood or provide crucial background information in a film, additional written material can enrich your scene in unexpected ways. This exercise will challenge you to look beyond the main action of your scene and consider what supplementary content could enhance the reader's experience. Remember, sometimes the most powerful moments happen in the margins of the main story!
Thursday, September 19, 2024
🟡 A Sensory Symphony
Exercise #340 Crafting Vivid and Emotive Scenes
Strategy: Imagine you're not just a writer, but a master of sensory manipulation and emotional orchestration. Like a foley artist, you have the power to add layers of realistic, vivid details that transport your readers into the heart of your scene. And like a composer, you can craft the emotional journey of your narrative, hitting just the right notes to resonate with your audience. This exercise will challenge you to engage all the senses in your writing and to carefully modulate the emotional tone of your scene. By focusing on these often-overlooked aspects of storytelling, you'll create a rich, immersive experience that lingers in the reader's mind long after they've finished the last word.
Friday, September 20, 2024
🟡 The VFX of Prose
Exercise #341 Crafting Vivid Scenes with Precision and Poetry
Strategy: Imagine you're a VFX artist, but instead of pixels, you're manipulating words. Your job is to create stunning verbal imagery that captivates your audience while ensuring the core narrative remains clear and impactful. Like a skilled VFX artist, you must know when to amp up the spectacle and when to let simplicity shine. This exercise will challenge you to enhance your prose with vivid elaborations and lyrical language, while also honing your ability to distill complex ideas into clear, concise statements. By mastering this balance, you'll create prose that's both beautiful and effective, leaving a lasting impression on your readers without losing them in a fog of words.
Saturday, September 21, 2024
🟡 Coloring Your Scene with Words
Exercise #352 Adjusting Tone and Atmosphere Like a Master Colorist
Strategy: Imagine you're a colorist in a high-tech editing suite, but instead of adjusting hues and saturation, you're fine-tuning the tone and atmosphere of your scene with words. Just as a colorist can transform the mood of a film from warm and inviting to cool and foreboding with a few tweaks, you have the power to dramatically shift the feeling of your scene by carefully choosing your words and phrases. This exercise will challenge you to experiment with different tonal approaches, helping you discover new dimensions in your writing and perhaps even uncovering a more compelling version of your scene than you originally envisioned. Remember, sometimes the perfect mood is found not in your first draft, but in the subtle adjustments you make during the editing process.
Sunday, September 22, 2024
🟡 The Prose Soundstage
Exercise #343 Perfecting Your Scene's Rhythm
Strategy: Imagine you're in a state-of-the-art dubbing studio, but instead of synchronizing dialogue to film, you're aligning your written words with the rhythm of natural speech. Just as a dubbing mixer ensures that every word fits perfectly with the visual elements, you'll be making sure each sentence flows seamlessly into the next when spoken aloud. This exercise will challenge you to listen closely to your prose, identifying and smoothing out any verbal speed bumps. Remember, great writing doesn't just look good on the page—it should sound good in the ear and feel natural on the tongue.
Our next weekly theme will focus on the seven ingredients of writer’s block